Finished Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. Picked it up because I had seen it recommended on this or another thread.

It goes over the whole Elizabeth Holmes saga right up until the whole thing began to unravel. Holmes is definitely the main deceiver here, but she was surrounded by others who enabled her, bullied others on her behalf, or relied on intimidation to shut people up who asked reasonable questions.

It fascinating to see how many big names were absolutely hoodwinked by this, and that the perps could get away with it for years. Holmes was still taking in 100 million dollar investments even when being investigated and word was starting to get out that all was not right at the company.

One of the greatest villains in the story and at the top with Holmes was Sunny Balwani. According to this version, that guy was the head jackass and intimidator for Holmes. He got his hands dirty, leaving Holmes to stay in her "brilliant tech girl" mode.

I'd recommend. Mainly because, like the Fyre Festival, its a tremendous disaster that you can't look away from.

rhutton125 said:

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Just a little, my dad is friends with the author's dad so I told him I'd check it out.

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Gotcha. That's neat! I spent some time out in that direction and was just curious.

Well, couldn't find my copy of Guns, Germs, and Steel so figured I'd whip out 16 Way to Defend a Walled City until I found it.

Enjoyed it quite a bit. Cool mix of contemporary writing with medieval setting and problems. My first book by KJ Parker and liked it enough to knock out a short story by him as well called Prosper's Demon. Also enjoyed that one a lot.

Now I'm super butthurt though because I STILL can't find my copy of Guns. Yall ever lose y'all's sanity tearing apart your place looking for something you KNOW you have but it refuses to be found? Infuriating. It's here….somewhere.

Til then, jumped into Midnight in Chernobyl. Already engrossed in it. Always been morbidly fascinated on the whole subject and learning a ton.

Completed Sharpe's Havoc by Bernard Cornwell, 1601 by Mark Twain (The works of Mark Twain), and Black Canaan by Robert E. Howard (The Robert E. Howard Omnibus: 99 Collected Stories (Halcyon Classics)).

In progress are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (The works of Mark Twain) and Moon of Zambebwei by Robert E. Howard (The Robert E. Howard Omnibus: 99 Collected Stories (Halcyon Classics))

I've gotten through about 35 books so far this year, mainly a mixture of action and Military thrillers.

I've been putting it off but after having reread the first four books of The Stormlight Archive last year I feel like I need to tackle Wind and Truth. Just seeing the size of this book on my coffee table makes it seem daunting. LOL it's going to take me through the end of the year to finish this thing I think. It's definitely going to slow down my book count for the year!

I have not been good about keeping track of all of the different characters outside of the main dozen or so. All of the Throwbacks to some of the old heralds which pop back up makes it seem a little confusing. I found a good animated summary video on YouTube but it's 3 hours long.

Roll the Bones said:

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It's definitely going to slow down my book count for the year!

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You're really slacking in that department

Only way I can keep stuff straight with big series like that is to read all of it straight through. The last time I did that was Malazan over a decade ago. It's all I read for two years.

Take commitment which I haven't had since then. Granted, my example is pretty extreme. Not reading Malazan straight through is almost foolish. But Cosmere sounds the same. I never read beyond the original trilogy.

How is the first law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie? I see it mentioned but not really discussed. I just finished the latest dungeon crawler Carl and the latest Dresden files book. If I like those, would I like the first law trilogy?

Finished U.S. Marines in the Battle for Sangin. Pretty interesting, a good look at what it was really like for one guy. Not a big picture war in Afghanistan book but a snapshot of one year in the conflict, I guess you could say.

Up next on my list is Noble House by James Clavell, but I'm a few days away from my next credit so I'll do Dungeon Crawler Carl book 5 first.

It's hard to judge based on those two. First Law is good. It's gritty and dark, though, so you have to like that. Logan Nine-Fingers is one of my favorite characters of all time.

maverick2076 said:

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It's hard to judge based on those two. First Law is good. It's gritty and dark, though, so you have to like that. Logan Nine-Fingers is one of my favorite characters of all time.

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Yes, it's quite different. Grim dark fantasy that evolves over time as society modernizes. It's badass. I've read every Abercrombie novel in this universe.

Very smartly written and awesome characters.

First Law(and the subsequent trilogies) are awesome

YouBet said:

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Only way I can keep stuff straight with big series like that is to read all of it straight through. The last time I did that was Malazan over a decade ago. It's all I read for two years.

Take commitment which I haven't had since then. Granted, my example is pretty extreme. Not reading Malazan straight through is almost foolish. But Cosmere sounds the same. I never read beyond the original trilogy.

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FLAG ON THE PLAY

You took a break from Sun Eater.

BenFiasco14 said:

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YouBet said:

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Only way I can keep stuff straight with big series like that is to read all of it straight through. The last time I did that was Malazan over a decade ago. It's all I read for two years.

Take commitment which I haven't had since then. Granted, my example is pretty extreme. Not reading Malazan straight through is almost foolish. But Cosmere sounds the same. I never read beyond the original trilogy.

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FLAG ON THE PLAY

You took a break from Sun Eater.

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That I did although I will say it's not nearly as hard to keep up with as something like Malazan. I'm more confused by its 100 year jumps into the future and then referring back to events we never actually read about.

LOVE First Law. I have fancy hard backs for it even. Memorable characters in a memorable setting. Glokta might be the perfect antagonist. My favorite character for sure. An easy recommend from me but will say drastically different from DCC and Dresden. First Law is grim dark fantasy and is exactly that. It's my favorite genre of all time because it's the one that fits reality the closest in my eyes. Not in the gruesome gore but in the fact that sometimes, the good guys just flat out don't win. Or in fact there may not be any good guys at all. Just a bunch of self interested parties vying against each other.

Eliminatus said:

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LOVE First Law. I have fancy hard backs for it even. Memorable characters in a memorable setting. Glokta might be the perfect antagonist. My favorite character for sure. An easy recommend from me but will say drastically different from DCC and Dresden. First Law is grim dark fantasy and is exactly that. It's my favorite genre of all time because it's the one that fits reality the closest in my eyes. Not in the gruesome gore but in the fact that sometimes, the good guys just flat out don't win. Or in fact there may not be any good guys at all. Just a bunch of self interested parties vying against each other.

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I read the trilogy but haven't read the following stand alone's. Since you love grimdark, highly recommend Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence.

StinkyPinky said:

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Eliminatus said:

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LOVE First Law. I have fancy hard backs for it even. Memorable characters in a memorable setting. Glokta might be the perfect antagonist. My favorite character for sure. An easy recommend from me but will say drastically different from DCC and Dresden. First Law is grim dark fantasy and is exactly that. It's my favorite genre of all time because it's the one that fits reality the closest in my eyes. Not in the gruesome gore but in the fact that sometimes, the good guys just flat out don't win. Or in fact there may not be any good guys at all. Just a bunch of self interested parties vying against each other.

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I read the trilogy but haven't read the following stand alone's. Since you love grimdark, highly recommend Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence.

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It's definitely on the TBR. I have them all but somehow haven't made the time for them yet. I loved his Red Sister and Library Trilogies. Might as well bump them to next after my current one is done. Thanks for the motivation!

Finished The Eternal World by Christopher Farnsworth. Pretty decent easy read. In the Blake Crouch realm. If you like those you probably like these. Good enough that I bought another about the President having his own personal vampire.

I loved the First Law trilogy too. It's been years, but i remember laughing my ass off and beeping enthralled. Should read it again someday.

I've read the series about 15 times. I love it

I'm up to 35 books this year after reading less than that the rest of my life. Also started an Instagram channel to talk about books. Feel free to look me up if you want low quality reviews and bad memes

@hobbituallyreading


Currently reading the Red Rising series and it is brutally good and goodly brutal.

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Mass
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick
Murder at the ABA by Isaac Asimov
Blacktail by Scott Hawkins
The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins in-progress

Really enjoyed The Songs of Distant Earth. Very cool premise right from the beginning: we find out the sun is going to go supernova 1,600 years from now, so we immediately start focusing on how to colonize other planets. It's a pretty short book (originally a short story he then expanded 30 years later), so I would have loved more (or even a series), but it was still good. It's primarily set in a single planet other than Earth rather than focusing on what happens on Earth.

I've only read a few of Clarke's books, but I've liked them all so far. About the only bad thing I can say is that I'm so used to longer books or having a series nowadays that I always wish there was more. I do like a good short standalone too though.

Currently about 1/3 through a reread of The Library at Mount Char. Had been wanting to reread it for awhile and figured I might as well after just reading Blacktail by the same author. It's been so long that I didn't realize there were some references in Blacktail to this book, so they are set in the same universe. This one is definitely weird, but I'm really enjoying it again so far.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (A-) - Took me awhile to get into the story but once the story got to the cattle drive to Montana I was hooked.. I was a little disappointed we did not get a more satisfying ending to some of the story (Newt/Hat Creek outfit in Montana and Clara and Lorie in Nebraska mostly). I guess I'll need to read Streets of Laredo.

Next or more accurately my current read, The October Country by Ray Bradbury. It is tagged as collection of macabre short stories and three stories in it seems to be an apt descriptor.

Audiobooks;
The Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (B+) - A surprisingly fun, epic and romantic adventure set in early 1870's Utah. Well worth the listen/read unless you're Mormon then the feud between the gentiles and Mormons will likely interfere with your enjoyment of the story (little to no nuance in most of the male Mormon characters). A Tolkienesque like description Utah desert, canyons and of course the purple sage may be a plus or a negative depending how much detail you enjoy in depiction of the scenery (a plus for me if done well which it is here). There is a sequel, The Rainbow Trail, which I might give a listen but October will be given over to spooky classics which might spill over into November. First up The Turning of the Screw by Henry James which is the basis of the classic psychological horror film, The Innocents.

September
34) The Great Fire: One American's Mission to Rescue Victims of the 20th Century's First Genocide by Lou Ureneck (B+)
35) The Incredulity of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton (B)
36) Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (A-)

Audiobooks;
16) The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (C)
17) Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman (A)
18) The Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (B+)

The sequal, Rainbow Trail, was pretty good too

I'm audiobooking "Dresden Files - Summer Knight". It's book 4 in the series, but its my 6th book to read. I've skipped around, thank you internet for filling in any missing pieces. Apparently I like the series enough to have read 6 of them, and I usually read it around October to get me into the season.

This morning, I spent my entire 30 minute walk getting through a fight scene with Grum the Ogre followed directly by a fight scene with a giant plant monster. Neither of these pushed the story forward at all. The White Court is fighting the Red Court, the Vampires are pissed, and Harry's working with Billy and the werewolves to solve a murder that could save the world.... cool stuff. I wish I didn't have to spend 30 minutes at a time on fantasy fighting. This was the 2nd time this has happened on walks with this book.

I think Jim Butcher writes a 300 page story and then stretches it to 600 pages with long, detailed magic power fights.

I'd be happy to get a Dresden book where each fight is summarized in a paragraph. The story and lore are great for fall / Halloween, and I'd rather read two books with the lore in the same time it takes to read one book.

However, I remember one scene from Dead Beat where he was riding a zombie dinosaur into war in a pouring rain storm. That was pretty cool.

agreed. I just tend to skip over them (like the speech in Atlas Shrugged)

Just finished Comanche Moon which wrapped up the Lonesome Dove series for me.

Not sure what I'm going to read next, maybe The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Pillars of the Earth is one of my favorites.

RooAg said:

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Pillars of the Earth is one of my favorites.

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Same....excellent book (and series)

Follett also has a really good series called the Century.....follows several families and how their paths twist and turn amongst each other through the 1900s.....book 1 is WWI, book 2 is WW2, book 3 is Cold War

Just downloaded the first book of Century, 30 hours

I just finished Summer Night this morning, it was my second time listening. For some reason this is my least favorite book in the series so far (I made it to Ghost Stories, book 13 my last time through). The names of the winter fairies are confusing when listening to the audio book. They are too close to sounding the same Mab and Maeve. It such a good series overall though. I started Death Masks right after which I remember being pretty awesome.

htxag09 said:

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Just finished Comanche Moon which wrapped up the Lonesome Dove series for me.

Not sure what I'm going to read next, maybe The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

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Read Pillars circa 1991 ... got it as one of those 10 books for a dime or something. Still have that hardback book.

Such a good read... Ken Follett is a master story teller.

Read the Man from St. Petersburg... epic story, awesome ending.

I have a lot of Follett's books on my to-read list. Next is Eye of the Needle.

Eye of the Needle is great too!

He and McMurtry are actually my two favorite authors